PROCRASTINATION, ETC…)

DO IT! DO IT NOW!

CREATE POSITIVE AVENUES TO RELEASE STRESS.

SET GOALS—–ACCOMPLISH THEM!

“DO THE THING THATS HARD TO DO!”

JMD II

“ Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

–James Madison

“ Pray, hope, and don’t worry.”

–Saint Padre Pio

“ Victory is for the one, even before the combat, who has no thought of himself, abiding in the no-mind-ness of great origin.”

–Bruce Lee, Tao Of Jeet Kune Do

“ A virtuous life makes me dear to God.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Chapter 73 ), 1954

“ Philosophy is common sense with big words. “

– James Madison

“ God gives every person the chance to know and improve their character. Many a person did not know their limitations and faults until he met successes and failures. That is why each one has their “ups and downs “, moments of satisfaction and moments of trial. The true person of God tries to live a life based on intelligent principles. He does not act on emotion or impulse unless the action makes sense.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Chapter 76 ), 1954

“ Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”

–Charles W. Eliot

“ A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

–Dr. Seuss

“ Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place.”

–Saint Therese Of Lisieux

“ Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”

–Rules Of Civility

“ Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

–John Wayne

“ To God there is nothing small. The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite.”

–Blessed Mother Teresa

“ De Oppresso Liber.”

–The Creed

“ When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.”

–Abraham Kuyper, Dutch Theologian

“ The Lord tells the number of the stars and calls them by name.”

–Psalm 147:4

“ We have it in our power to begin the world again.”

–Thomas Paine

“ The Love of God is the flower, Mercy, the fruit.”

–Saint Faustina, Diary, 949

“ Standin’ on a hill on the mountain of dreams, tellin’ myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems…”

–Robert Plant & Jimmy Page

“ When the cities lie at the monster’s feet, there are left the mountains.”

–Robinson Jeffers, Shine, Perishing Republic

“ Without virtue and without integrity the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect or conciliate the esteem of the truly valuable part of mankind. “

–George Washington, March 8, 1797

“ Undertake not what you cannot perform. Be careful to keep your promises.”

–Rules Of Civility

“ Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities…because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

–Sir Winston Churchill

“ This is courage in a man: to bear unflinchingly what Heaven sends.”

–Euripides

“ We must travel in the direction of our fear.”

–John Berryman, A Point Of Age

“ Such then is the character of true courage…though it never provokes danger, it is always ready to meet even death in an honorable cause.”

–Aristotle

“ The struggle of today, is not altogether for today- it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us.”

–Abraham Lincoln

“ Humanity will not be cast down. We are going down swinging bravely forward- along the grand high road- and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun.”

–Sir Winston Churchill

“ The secret of true greatness is to follow God’s Will in all things.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Chapter 65 ), 1954

“ The eye sees it, but no hands can take hold of it- the moon in the stream.”

–Bruce Lee, Tao Of Jeet Kune Do

“ Carpe Diem!” ( Quam minimum credula postero.)

–Horace

“ The God who gave us life gave us liberty.”

–Thomas Jefferson

“Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee, O God.”

–Saint Catherine Of Sienna

“ We make a living by what we get.

We make a life by what we give.”

–Sir Winston Churchill

“ Integrity and firmness is all I can promise; these, be the voyage long or short, never shall forsake me although I may be deserted by all men.”

– George Washington, letter to Henry Knox, Mount

Vernon, April 1, 1789

“ Our lives change when our habits change.”

–Matthew Kelly, Dynamic Catholic

“ We must strive to become the best version of ourselves.”

–Matthew Kelly, Dynamic Catholic

“ We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

–Aristotle

“ The humble man seeks perfection according to his strength. He does his best and renews his efforts when he has failed. He does not deceive himself. He really tries his best. When, however, he fails, he is neither surprised nor excited. He is genuinely sorry, looks for guidance, and begins again.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Chapter 99 ), 1954

“ Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. Sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can. “

–Vince Lombardi

“ Nothing is little, nothing is unimportant, nothing is insignificant in my daily life. What I think, do, or say, shows what I want and what I am trying to be.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Chapter 106 ), 1954

“ It can be done.”

–Ronald Reagan

“ Grace honors goodness more than goods. It respects virtue more than talent.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Chapter 107 ), 1954

“ Hoka Hey!!!”

–Crazy Horse

“ Aspire to be like Mt. Fuji, with such a broad and solid foundation that the strongest earthquake cannot move you, and so tall that the greatest enterprises of common men seem insignificant from your lofty perspective. With your mind as high as Mt. Fuji you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events; not just the things happening near to you.”

–Miyamoto Musashi

“ The holy virtue of charity makes one so honest that he can admit the truth, even when it points out his limitations and defects. True charity makes one humble enough to face all facts, even disagreeable ones.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Book Two, Chapter 28 ) 1954

“ Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear, nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings.”

–Amelia Earheart

“ I believe a work of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”

–Walt Whitman

“ Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind.”

–Zen saying

“ All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

–Walt Disney

“ When the way comes to an end, then change-

having changed, you pass through.”

–I Ching

“ If you can dream it, you can do it.”

–Walt Disney

“ Every man dies. Not every man really lives.”

–Sir William Wallace

“ As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.”

–John Locke

“ Let everyone regulate his conduct…by the Golden Rule of doing to others as in similar circumstances we would have them do to us, and the path of duty will be clear before him.”

–William Wilberforce

“ The more you know, the less you understand.”

–Tao Te Ching

“ Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”

–Calvin Coolidge

“ Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.”

–Ayn Rand

“ The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

–Walt Disney

“ A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this world; he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.”

–John Locke

“ Lethargy is another evil of our day. There are many who are not guilty of doing anything wrong, but very guilty of sins of omission- the things they neglect to do- the good things- the kind, thoughtful words, compassionate thoughts and hopeful attitudes they might have had towards their neighbor.”

–Mother Angelica

“ The middle way is no way at all. If we finally fail in this great and glorious contest, it will be by bewildering ourselves in groping for the middle way.”

–John Adams, Letter to General Horatio Gates, 1776

“ Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

“ Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

–Albert Einstein, ( three rules of work )

“ Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.”

–Walt Disney

“ Lift the stone and you will find Me; Cleave the wood and I am there.”

–Our Lord Jesus Christ

“ I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. “

–John Locke

“ I prefer dangerous Freedom over peaceful slavery.”

–Thomas Jefferson

“ In the realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible.”

–Ayn Rand

“ A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

–G.K. Chesterton

“ Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.”

–William F. Buckley Jr.

“ By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ I have always supported measures and principles and not men.”

–Davey Crockett

“ Chop wood, carry water.”

–Zen saying

“ The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”

–Ayn Rand

“ The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”

–G.K. Chesterton

“ Words may show a man’s wit, but his actions , his meaning.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it, and one is the feeling that I haven’t just been sitting on my a_ _ all afternoon.”

–William F. Buckley Jr.

“ Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.”

–Ayn Rand

“ Be always sure you are right- then go ahead.”

–Davey Crockett

“ Great man demands it of himself; petty man of others.”

–Confucius

“ To make a prairie it takes

a clover and one bee,

one clover, and a bee,

and revery.

The revery alone will do,

if bees are few.”

–Emily Dickinson

“ Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.”

–G.K. Chesterton

“ Not to alter one’s faults is to be faulty indeed.”

–Confucius

“ Let your tongue speak what your heart thinks.”

–Davey Crockett

“ There are two sides to every issue; one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.”

–Ayn Rand

“ Vigorous organisms talk not about their processes, but about their aims.”

–G.K. Chesterton

“ Do the thing that’s hard to do.”

–JMD II

“ If you’re afraid of the future, then get out of the way, stand aside. The people of this country are ready to move again.”

–Ronald Reagan

“ Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ Courage faces fear and thereby masters it. Cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it. Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”

–Martin Luther King Jr.

“ The gem cannot be polished without friction nor the man perfected without trials.”

–Chinese Proverb

“ Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ Be like water.”

–Bruce Lee

“ Fortune favors the bold.”

–Virgil

“ There are some people, nevertheless- and I am one of them- who think that the most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe.”

–G.K. Chesterton

“ Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.”

–Ayn Rand

“ The lionheart pushes on because he must.”

–JMD II

“ Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Honesty is the best policy.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach the highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

–Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life, 1905

“ It is terrible to see how a single unclear idea, a single formula without meaning, lurking in a young man’s head, will sometimes act like an obstruction of inert matter in an artery, hindering the nutrition of the brain, condemning its victim to pine away in the fullness of his intellectual vigour and in the midst of intellectual plenty.”

–Charles Sanders Peirce

“ The awakened man creates his own destiny. The fool resigns himself to fate.”

–Confucius

“ Rangers lead the way.”

–Unites States Army Ranger Creed

“ Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…Every step toward the goal requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

–Martin Luther King Jr.

“ All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”

–Ayn Rand

“ It’s the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory.”

–General George S. Patton, Jr., United States Army

“ Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”

–Ronald Reagan

“Act as if and it will be.”

–JMD II

“ Lost time is never found again.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashion.”

–G.K. Chesterton

“ I rarely took exercise merely as exercise. Primarily I took it because I liked it.”

–Theodore Roosevelt

“ If passion drives you, let reason be the reins.”

– Benjamin Franklin

“ Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.”

–Soren Kierkegaard

“ The Will

I hope to die a good death.

I will die a good death.

I hope to love.

I will love.

I have hope for my dreams.

I will make my dreams come true.

I hope for freedom.

I will be free.

Hope is good.

Will is better.”

–JMD II

“ If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye can say to this mountain move, and nothing shall be impossible.”

“ It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.”

–G.K. Chesterton

“ All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don’t sit looking at it- walk.”

–Ayn Rand

“ A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.”

–General George S. Patton Jr., United States Army

“ All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”

–Ronald Reagan

“ I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark would burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.”

–Jack London

“Do not make excuses! Ever!”

–JMD II

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

–Soren Kierkegaard

“ Well done is better than well said.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.”

–G.K. Chesterton

“ There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.”

–Ayn Rand

“Attack rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest, however tired and hungry you may be, the enemy will be more tired, more hungry. Keep punching.”

–General George S. Patton Jr., United States Army

“ I’m just a ball player with one ambition, and that is to give all I’ve got to help my ball club win. I’ve never played any other way.”

–Joe Di Maggio, New York Yankee

“ To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last- but eat you he will.”

–Ronald Reagan

“ There is only one type of discipline, perfect discipline.”

–General George S. Patton Jr., United States Army

“ Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.”

–Old Proverb

“ The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.”

–Soren Kierkegaard

“ No. Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no “try”.”

–Master Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas

“ Anything forced is a form of slavery. Let no one tell you what to do. Decide by your own, God-given free will.”

–JMD II, December, 2012

“ Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”

–Ayn Rand

“ There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”

–Ronald Reagan

“ Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”

–Philippians 4:8

“ Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

–General George S. Patton Jr., United States Army

“ In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.”

–Abraham Lincoln, December 1, 1862, Annual Message to Congress

“ You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”

–Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964 ( from “ The

Speech” )

“ Do more than is required by you.”

–General George S. Patton Jr., United States Army

“ A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

–Ayn Rand

“ God helps those who help themselves.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ I kneel before no one but God.”

–JMD II, December, 2012

“ Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.”

–General George S. Patton Jr., United States Army

“ My people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

–Josiah

“ I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

–Bill Cosby

“ To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.”

–Thomas Jefferson

“ A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious but it cannot survive treason from within. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in an accent familiar to his victims and wears their face and their garments…he rots the soul of a nation. He works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.”

–Cicero

“ Oh God Whose end is justice, Whose strength is all our stay, Be near and bless my mission as I go forth today. Let wisdom guide my actions, let courage fill my heart, and help me, Lord, in every hour to do a Ranger’s part. Protect when danger threatens, sustain when trails are rough; help me to keep my standard high and smile at each rebuff. When might comes down upon me, I pray thee, Lord, be nigh, whether lonely scout, or camped, under Texas sky. Keep me, oh God, in life and when my days shall end, forgive my sins and take me in, For Jesus’ sake, Amen.”

–The Rangers Prayer

“ Come, let us reason together.”

–Isaiah 1:18

“ Hear reason, or she’ll make you feel her.”

–Benjamin Franklin

“ If not us, who? If not now, when?”

–Ronald Reagan

“ In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”

–Bill Cosby

“ What one person can do another can do!”

–JMD II

“ The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.”

–Alexis De Tocqueville

“ Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there’s a Divinity that shapes our ends. I know the uncertainties of human affairs. But I see through this day’s business. We may die, die as colonists; die as slaves; die it may be on the scaffold. Be it so. But while I live, let me have a country or at least the hope of a country, at least the hope of a country, and that a free country. But whatever be our fate, be assured, that this declaration will stand…All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope to be in life I am now ready to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration.”

– John Adams at the Signing of the Declaration

Of Independence

“ Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing.”

–Bill Cosby

“ Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

–Immanuel Kant

“ Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”

–Saint Francis Of Assisi

“ A man must know his destiny…if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder…if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.”

–General George S. Patton Jr., United States Army

“ Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.”

–Ronald Reagan

“ Be proactive rather than reactive.”

–JMD II

“ Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

–Saint Francis Of Assisi

“ Decide that you want it more than you’re afraid of it.”

–Bill Cosby

“ Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered with failure, than to take rank with those poor, timid souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

–Theodore Roosevelt, April 10, 1899

“ In the old days, to prove a warrior’s bravery, a ritual would take place…A shaman would dress in a bear skin and leave to the forest. Sometime later, a young warrior would be sent out into the wilderness, no weapons, only spirit. If the young warrior saw a bear it was considered an act of bravery to run to the bear and hug it with no fear. If it was the shaman, the young warrior was brave. If it was the bear, the young warrior was dead. The moral of the story is that we are often faced with obstacles that may seem frightening. Those who take a chance and run towards destiny and embrace it may find what they’re looking for. Those who do not take the chance will always wonder if the bear was real. Embrace destiny!”

– JMD II, Native American tale as it was told to me by a

Chief when I was a young boy.

“ Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere.”

– Ronald Reagan, September 15, 1986 ( in an interview

with Fortune magazine, discussing management style.)

“ It is not God’s Will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.”

–Immanuel Kant

“ Never mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat: up again, old heart!- it seems to say,- there is victory yet…”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance and Other Essays

“ Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.”

–Saint Thomas Aquinas

“ We shall go on to the end. We shall fight on the grounds, we shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight on the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills…WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER!”

–Sir Winston Churchill

“ You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.”

–C.S. Lewis

“ A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

“ Live your life as though your every act were to become universal law.”

–Immanuel Kant

“ You are a human being. You are the most dominant species on this planet. Act like it. Your will and fortitude can overcome any challenge presented to you. We are dominant because of our intellect. Our minds are our greatest tools. Mind over matter can always prevail.”

–JMD II

“ No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”

–Ronald Reagan

“ You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

–Abraham Lincoln

“ Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair, the rest is in the hands of God.”

–George Washington

“ Do not despair. Get angry. Use anger. Control anger. Anger is more useful than despair.”

–JMD II

“ Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.”

–Saint Thomas Aquinas

“ To the people of Texas and all Americans in the world:

Fellow citizens and compatriots; I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism, & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country. Victory or death.”

– William Barret Travis Lt. Col. Comdt.

( at the Alamo )

“ We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.”

–Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984,

D-Day Commemoration, Normandy, France

“ Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.”

–George Washington

“ The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”

–Abraham Lincoln

“ Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”

–C.S. Lewis

“ Set goals—Accomplish them! Do the thing that’s hard to do!”

–JMD II

“ Whatever you are, be a good one.”

–Abraham Lincoln

“ Twenty-eight

Know the strength of man,

But keep a woman’s care!

Be the stream of the universe!

Being the stream of the universe,

Ever true and unswerving,

Become as a little child once more.

Know the white, But keep the black!

Be an example to the world!

Being an example to the world,

Ever true and unwavering,

Return to the infinite.

Know honor, Yet keep humility.

Be the valley of the universe!

Being the valley of the universe,

Ever true and resourceful,

Return to the state of the uncarved block.

When the block is carved, it becomes useful.

When the sage uses it, he becomes the ruler.

Thus, “ A great tailor cuts little.””

–Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

“ A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.”

–Frank Capra

“ It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

–C.S. Lewis

“ Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”

–C.S. Lewis

“ That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

–Abraham Lincoln

“ It is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.”

–Ronald Reagan

“ To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Do the thing that’s hard to do! Challenge yourself. Focus. Balance your priorities. Don’t be overwhelmed by one area of your life ( God, Family, You, Exercise, Sports, Hobbies, Work, Time, Etc…). Be the best person you can be, inside and out. Take care of yourself ( healthy eating, exercise, rest ). Be aware of your body. It is the temple of your soul and the extension of your mind! Don’t accept weakness! Be strong! Be strong, physically, mentally, and spiritually! Relieve stress in positive ways. Stress manifests in the body. Avoid self-destructive bad habits ( smoking, poor diet, procrastination, etc…). Create positive avenues to release stress. Repetition breeds success. Do it! Do it now!”

–JMD II

“ We did not ask for this fight, but we will not run from it.”

–Cardinal Timothy Dolan, March 2, 2012

“ Your true worth is proved by a determined effort to follow your good resolutions.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Book Two, Chapter 33, 1954 )

“ Grant me the wisdom to keep my eyes on that goal, so that I may never become discouraged or cowardly in life’s daily battle.”

– My Daily Bread, Confraternity Of The Precious Blood,

( Book Two, Chapter 33 Prayer, 1954 )

“ That nothing’s so Sacred as Honor, and nothing’s so loyal as love.”

–Wyatt Earp’s tombstone epitaph

“ But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

–Robert Frost

“ Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”

–William Shakespeare

“ Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”

–Babe Ruth

“ Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

–William Shakespeare

“ You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.”

–Babe Ruth

“ It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.”

–William Shakespeare

“ I tell you this, no Eternal Reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.”– Jim Morrison

“ Two roads diverged in a wood and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

–Robert Frost

“And this must be our business, to strive to overcome ourselves, and daily to gain strength over ourselves, and to grow better and better.”

— Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418

Translated by The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

” Without that Way there is no going, without that Truth there is no knowing, without that Life there is no real living.”

“To have no opinion of ourselves and to think always well and commendably of others, is great wisdom and high perfection.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418

Translated by The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

“Everyone in the world of competition has a strong desire to win, but the Yankees also have an atmosphere where losing is not an option. These two observations may sound similar, but I believe it is a rarity to find both coexisting in the same organization.”

– Ichiro Suzuki, New York Yankee

“I believe the Yankees organization appreciates that there is a difference between a thirty-nine year old who has played relying only on talent, and a thirty-nine year old who has prepared, practiced, and thought thoroughly through many experiences for their craft.”

– Ichiro Suzuki, New York Yankee

“I don’t find the time to work out and eat well. I make the time!”

-Airlie Di Fazio

“I love it when a plan comes together!”

– John “ Hannibal “ Smith, The A-Team,

January 23, 1983- March 8, 1987

“But let us lay the axe to the root that, being purged from passions, we may possess a quiet mind. If every year we rooted out one vice we should soon become perfect.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

“There is wisdom in repeating the truth, and sometimes the truths that are easiest to speak have the deepest meaning.”

– Five Minutes With The Word ( Lent 2013 ),

Reflecting on Hosea 14:3 & Mark 12:28-34

“They can not take from me the earth and sky!”

– Crazy Horse

“God chooses little things to do big things.”

– Mother Angelica, EWTN

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.”

– John Wayne

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.”

– Abraham Lincoln

“No reserve, no retreat, no regret.”

– Written in the personal Bible of William Borden,

heir of the Borden Dairy Company,

– who died at the age of 25 as a missionary for our Lord

“Just do it.”

-Nike Slogan

“Thou must pass through fire and water before thou cometh to refreshment.”

– Psalm LXVI. 12.

“Man messes up many things. Government messes up everything.”

– JMD II, March 15, 2013

“Consensus is the absence of leadership.”

– Lady Margaret Thatcher

“Strength and Honor.”

-Greeting & departure of Roman Legionnaires

“Because I am as yet weak in love and imperfect in virtue, do I stand in need of being strengthened by Thee. For this reason, visit me often and instruct me in Thy holy discipline.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By the Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

“Love is an excellent thing, a great good indeed, which alone maketh light all that is burdensome…The lover flies, runs and rejoices, he is free and not held. He gives all for all and has all in all, because he rests in one sovereign good above all, from Whom all good flows and proceeds. Love often knows no measure, but is inflamed above all measure. Love feels no burden, values no labors, would willingly do more than it can; complains not of impossibility, because it conceives that it may and can do all things.”

– Thomas ’a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

“Be good, and do good.”

– John Adams ( To his children, beginning each day.)

(I adopted this quotation and say this my children each day as well- JMD II )

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

– Johnny Cash

“I was a professional speaker before I ran for president. Not a motivational speaker- an inspirational speaker. Motivation comes from within. You have to be inspired. That’s what I do. I inspire people, I inspire the public, I inspire my staff, I inspired the organizations that I took over to want to succeed.”

-Herman Cain

“I could never resist the call of the trail.”

-Buffalo Bill Cody

“I am… a mushroom, on whom the dew of Heaven drops now and then.”

-John Ford, Director

“I enjoy my own thoughts sometimes.”

– Dave Chappelle, Comedian

“It is there Thou showest me to myself, what I am, what I have been, and what I am to come to; for I am nothing and I knew it not.”

– Psalm LXXII.22

“They shall gain great freedom of mind who, for Thy name, enter upon the narrow way and put aside all worldly care.”

-Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

“How well I’ve learned that there is no fence to sit on between Heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.”

– Johnny Cash

“Some days I would go without any fire at all, and eat raw, frozen meat, and melt snow in my mouth for water.”

-Buffalo Bill Cody

“My father told me, ‘ Name your price in the beginning. If it ever gets more expensive than the price you name, get out of there.’”

-Dave Chappelle, Comedian

“The things that have always been important: to be a good man, to try to live my life the way God would have me, to turn it over to Him that His Will might be worked in my life, to do my work without looking back, to give it all I’ve got.”

-Johnny Cash

“I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.”

-Johann Sebastian Bach

“You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.”

-John Ford, Director

“You’ve got to know your limitations. I don’t know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren’t too many limitations, if I did it my way.”

-Johnny Cash

“But the love of adventure was in Father’s blood.”

-Buffalo Bill Cody

“I read novels, but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.”

-Johnny Cash

“But the west of the old times, with its strong characters, its stern battles, and its tremendous stretches of loneliness, can never be blotted from my mind.”

-Buffalo Bill Cody

“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”

-Thomas Jefferson

“Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”

-Saint Teresa Of Avila

“As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.”

-Leonardo Da Vinci

“No guard that we can keep upon ourselves will profit us if Thy Holy Providence watch not over us.”

-Psalm CXXVI.1

“One of the greatest titles in the world is Parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call Mom and Dad.”

-Jim De Mint

“Shall the clay glory against Him that formed it?”

-Isaiah XLV.9

“I trust myself, and I trust in the Lord. All this- it’s blessings from the Lord.”

-Mariano Rivera, New York Yankee,

After Recording His 622nd Career Save,

(14th Consecutive Save- Flawless On The Year.)

“The whole world will not move him whom Truth hath established in Humility.”

-Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

“And this must be our business, to strive to overcome ourselves, and daily to gain strength over ourselves, and to grow better and better.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418

Translated by The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

“Without that Way there is no going, without that Truth there is no knowing, without that Life there is no real living.”

” People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents. “

– Andrew Carnegie

” To have no opinion of ourselves and to think always well and commendably of others, is great wisdom and high perfection.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418

Translated by The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

” Everyone in the world of competition has a strong desire to win, but the Yankees also have an atmosphere where losing is not an option. These two observations may sound similar, but I believe it is a rarity to find both coexisting in the same organization.”

– Ichiro Suzuki, New York Yankee

” Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”

– John D. Rockefeller

” I believe the Yankees organization appreciates that there is a difference between a thirty-nine year old who has played relying only on talent, and a thirty-nine year old who has prepared, practiced, and thought thoroughly through many experiences for their craft.”

– Ichiro Suzuki, New York Yankee

” Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther. “

– John Pierpont Morgan

” I don’t find the time to work out and eat well. I make the time!”

– Airlie Di Fazio

” I love it when a plan comes together!”

– John ” Hannibal ” Smith, The A-Team,

January 23, 1983- March 8, 1987

” But let us lay the axe to the root that, being purged from passions, we may possess a quiet mind. If every year we rooted out one vice we should soon become perfect.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

” There is wisdom in repeating the truth, and sometimes the truths that are easiest to speak have the deepest meaning.”

– Five Minutes With The Word ( Lent 2013 ),

Reflecting on Hosea 14:3 & Mark 12:28-34

” They can not take from me the earth and sky!”

– Crazy Horse

” God chooses little things to do big things.”

– Mother Angelica, EWTN

” We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.”

– John Wayne

” And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.”

– Abraham Lincoln

” No reserve, no retreat, no regret.”

– Written in the personal Bible of William Borden, heir of the Borden Dairy Company,

– who died at the age of 25 as a missionary for our Lord

” Why wilt thou put off thy resolutions from day to day? Arise, and begin this very moment, and say: now is the time for doing, and now is the time to fight; now is the proper time to amend my life.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

” Just do it. ”

– Nike slogan

” Thou must pass through fire and water before thou cometh to refreshment.”

– Psalm LXVI. 12.

“Man messes up many things. Government messes up everything.”

– JMD II, March 15, 2013

” Consensus is the absence of leadership. “

– Lady Margaret Thatcher

” Strength and Honor.”

– Greeting & departure of Roman Legionnaires

” Because I am as yet weak in love and imperfect in virtue, do I stand in need of being strengthened by Thee. For this reason, visit me often and instruct me in Thy holy discipline.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By the Confraternity Of The

Precious Blood, 1954

” The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”

– Nikola Tesla

” You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.”

– Andrew Carnegie

” Love is an excellent thing, a great good indeed, which alone maketh light all that is burdensome…The lover flies, runs and rejoices, he is free and not held. He gives all for all and has all in all, because he rests in one sovereign good above all, from Whom all good flows and proceeds. Love often knows no measure, but is inflamed above all measure. Love feels no burden, values no labors, would willingly do more than it can; complains not of impossibility, because it conceives that it may and can do all things.”

– Thomas ’a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By The Confraternity Of The

Precious Blood, 1954

” Be good, and do good.”

– John Adams ( To his children, beginning each

day. ) ( I adopted this quotation and say this to my children each day as well- JMD II )

” You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

– Johnny Cash

” I was a professional speaker before I ran for president. Not a motivational speaker- an inspirational speaker. Motivation comes from within. You have to be inspired. That’s what I do. I inspire people, I inspire the public, I inspire my staff, I inspired the organizations that I took over to want to succeed.”

– Herman Cain

” I could never resist the call of the trail.”

– Buffalo Bill Cody

” I am… a mushroom, on whom the dew of Heaven drops now and then.”

– John Ford, Director

” I enjoy my own thoughts sometimes.”

– Dave Chappelle, Comedian

” It is there Thou showest me to myself, what I am, what I have been, and what I am to come to; for I am nothing and I knew it not.”

– Psalm LXXII.22

” They shall gain great freedom of mind who, for Thy name, enter upon the narrow way and put aside all worldly care. ”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By The Confraternity Of The

Precious Blood, 1954

” I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”

– John D. Rockefeller

” How well I’ve learned that there is no fence to sit on between Heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man. ”

– Johnny Cash

” Some days I would go without any fire at all, and eat raw, frozen meat, and melt snow in my mouth for water.”

– Buffalo Bill Cody

” My father told me, ‘ Name your price in the beginning. If it ever gets more expensive than the price you name, get out of there.’”

– Dave Chappelle, Comedian

” Concentrate your energies, your thoughts, and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.”

– Andrew Carnegie

” The things that have always been important: to be a good man, to try to live my life the way God would have me, to turn it over to Him that His Will might be worked in my life, to do my work without looking back, to give it all I’ve got.”

– Johnny Cash

” I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.”

– Johann Sebastian Bach

” You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.”

– John Ford, Director

” You’ve got to know your limitations. I don’t know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren’t too many limitations, if I did it my way.”

– Johnny Cash

” But the love of adventure was in Father’s blood.”

– Buffalo Bill Cody

” No problem can be solved until it is reduced to some simple form. The changing of a vague difficulty into a specific, concrete form is a very essential element in thinking.”

– John Pierpont Morgan

” I read novels, but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.”

– Johnny Cash

” But the west of the old times, with its strong characters, its stern battles, and its tremendous stretches of loneliness, can never be blotted from my mind.”

– Buffalo Bill Cody

” Concentration is my motto- First honesty, then industry, then concentration.”

– Andrew Carnegie

” Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”

– Thomas Jefferson

” Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”

– Saint Teresa Of Avila

” As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.”

– Leonardo Da Vinci

” No guard that we can keep upon ourselves will profit us if Thy Holy Providence watch not over us.”

– Psalm CXXVI.1

” One of the greatest titles in the world is Parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call Mom and Dad.”

– Jim De Mint

” Shall the clay glory against Him that formed it?”

– Isaiah XLV.9

” I trust myself, and I trust in the Lord. All this- it’s blessings from the Lord.”

– Mariano Rivera, New York Yankee,

After Recording His 622nd Career Save ( 14th

Consecutive Save- Flawless On The Year.)

” The whole world will not move him whom Truth hath established in Humility.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

” I don’t want to live on someday when my motto is last week…”

– Alanis Morissette

” I’ve worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down, and I will not let myself down.”

– Mia Hamm

” What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

– Henry David Thoreau

” The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”

– Amelia Earhart

” Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.”

– John D. Rockefeller

” Wyatt Earp is one of the few men I personally knew in the West in the early days, whom I regarded as absolutely destitute of physical fear. I have often remarked, and I am not alone in my conclusions, that what goes for courage in a man is generally the fear of what others will think of him- in other words, personal bravery is largely made up of self-respect, egotism, and an apprehension of the opinions of others. Wyatt Earp’s daring and apparent recklessness in time of danger is wholly characteristic; personal fear doesn’t enter into the equation, and when everything is said and done, I believe he values his own opinion of himself more than that of others, and it is his own good report that he seeks to preserve.”

– Bat Masterson

” And yet they lived in this world without complaint, so humble and simple, without any malice or guile, that they were even glad when they suffered affronts and reproaches for Thy name; and what the world flies from they embraced with great affection.”

– Acts V.41

” If we succeed, the Country is ours. It is immense in extent, and fertile in its soil and will amply reward all our toil. If we fail, death in the cause of Liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our side, and choice guns they are, we know what awaits us, and we are prepared to meet it.”

– Daniel Cloud, December 26, 1835 ( En Route To

San Antonio ) ( Cloud Was One Of 189 Men Who Perished Defending The Alamo )

” Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.”

– Nikola Tesla

” Once when I was a kid, another boy came to me with the proposition that I help him raid a chicken roost.

” Hell no! I’m not gonna steal that man’s chickens,”

I said.

” We don’t have to call it stealing, Bob. We’ll call it “swiping,” he said.

” Chicken stealing is stealing no matter what you call it,”

I replied! For years I thought hard of him, but now I see I did him an injustice. He was simply the forerunner of our modern intelligentsia, one of the first to syrup one’s conscience by calling an ugly thing a pretty name.”

– Robert E. Howard Letter To H.P. Lovecraft,

May 13, 1936

” The thoughts and words of men can neither add to nor subtract from Truth.”

– JMD II, 2012

” A Better Place
The world would be a better place without
Crabgrass,
Ticks,
And career politicians.”

– JMD II

” The ‘morality of compromise’ sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.”

– Andrew Carnegie

” …All manner of evil things prey upon the soul of man. Yet in some far day the shadows shall fade…And till then mankind can but stand up stoutly to the monsters in his own heart and beyond. And with the aid of God he may yet triumph.”

– Robert E. Howard, The Chronicles Of Solomon Kane

” Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

” Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”

– Nikola Tesla

” The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.”

– Andrew Carnegie

” I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success…such emotions make man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.”

– Nikola Tesla

” I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.”

– Philippians 4:13

” Race, life is a race
and I am gonna win
Yes, I am gonna win
I’ll light the fuse
And I’ll never lose
And I choose to survive
Whatever it takes
You won’t pull ahead
I’ll keep up the pace
And I will reveal my strength
To the whole human race
Yes, I am prepared to stay alive
I won’t forgive
Vengeance is mine,
And I won’t give in
Because I choose to thrive
And I am going to win
Race, it’s a race
And I’m gonna win
Yes, I’m gonna win
And I will light the fuse
And I’ll never lose
And I choose to survive
Whatever it takes
You won’t pull ahead
Because I’ll keep up the pace
And I will reveal my strength
To the whole human race
Yes, I’m going to win.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Win! Win! Win! Win!
YES I’M GOING TO WIN.”

– Muse (” Survival “) Songwriters: Bellamy, Matthew James

( Watch the official video for ” Survival ” – London 2012 Olympics on YouTube. VERY MOTIVATING!!)

” God knew my soul before I was born.”

-Psalm 139: 13-15

” Quamvis enim melius sit benefacere quam nosse, prius tamen est nosse quam facere. ( Right action is better than knowledge: but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right. )”

– Charlemagne

” It is not important to be known. It is important to do God’s will.”

– A Friend Of Medjugorje, ( They Fired The First

Shot 2012 )

” I will fear no evil whilst Thy grace is with me. She is my strength; she gives counsel and help. She is mightier than all my enemies, and wiser than all the wise. She is the mistress of Truth, the teacher of discipline, the light of the heart, the comforter in affliction, the banisher of sorrow, the expeller of fears, the nurse of devotion, the producer of tears. ”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

“

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
” Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!”

he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

” Forward the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one had blundered:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered:
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death.
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered:
Plunged in the battery smoke
Right through the line they broke:
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke,
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not,
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered:
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death.
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!”

– Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Charge Of The

Light Brigade ( Balaclava, October 25, 1852 )

” Opportunities to do good are talents for which we must give an account.”

– Cotton Mather, Essays To Do Good, 1710

” Believe the incredible, and you can do the impossible. It is our want of faith that holds us back. When did Peter begin to sink? The Gospel gives us the reason. He took account of the winds, he began reading some surveys; it was established statistically that 99.44% of mankind cannot walk on water. All of the incredulities were in the winds. When he took his eyes off Christ, Peter began to sink.”

– Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living

” For me, life is writing, and I can do it anywhere. It doesn’t matter where I am. I listen. I write. I live.”

– Maynard James Keenan

” Every means of usefulness should be embraced.”

– Cotton Mather, Essays To Do Good, 1710

” We become that which we love. If one loves the material, one becomes like the material; if one loves the spiritual, one is converted into it in his outlook, his ideals, and his aspirations.”

– Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living

” Roll on, ye ages, to bring about such admirable spectacles!”

– Cotton Mather, Essays To Do Good, 1710

” There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.”

– Alexander Hamilton

” Though you face opposition now, though you are tempted to abandon the truths you believe in, you can still remain faithful. Yes, it’s hard some days. But don’t give in. Talk to the Lord. Ask for His help and encouragement. Believe that in Christ you have an advocate who sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for you. You have a redeemer who has sent his Spirit to empower you and to give you the wisdom and self-control, the joy and peace necessary to carry on, faithful, to the end. ”

– The Word Among Us, November 21, 2013

Meditation

” I believe there are keys to success. For me it is keeping my priorities in order; it’s my faith and my family, and then the business.”

– Kathy Ireland

” A higher form of prayer than petition and a potent remedy against the externalization of life is meditation. Meditation is a little like a daydream or a reverie, but with two important differences: In meditation we do not think about the world or ourselves, but about God; and instead of using the imagination to build idle castles…, we use the will to make resolutions that will draw us nearer to one of the Father’s mansions”

– Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living

” Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.”

– Matthew XI. 28

” My family gave me values that have sustained me through situations that would challenge any person. My personal relationship with the Lord inspires me in all I do.”

– Kathy Ireland

” Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.”

– Washington Irving

” If we get our self-esteem from superficial places, from our popularity, appearance, business success, financial situation, health, any of these, we will be disappointed, because no one can guarantee that we’ll have them tomorrow.”

– Kathy Ireland

” Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.”

– Washington Irving

” All knowledge that ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word; which is its mechanical part.”

– Leonardo Da Vinci

” An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of Heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather.”

– Washington Irving

” I like structure…a structure of life, a path of light,…which is something very beautiful.”

” Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

– General Douglas Mac Arthur, United States Army

” I go to the gym about four or five times a week. I’m actually listening to my body now. My body needs freedom. When I train, I create serenity and I produce oxygen in my blood. It helps me to think better and relax.”

– Jean-Claude Van Damme

” Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”

– Ronald Reagan

” Judgment behaviors involve “standing over” someone and looking down on him or her. As such, they are the direct opposite of understanding. To understand is to “stand under”. It is to offer people our support and to look up to them with deep respect. Every person deserves to be treated this way, with respect and understanding, because everyone is made in the image of God.”

– The Word Among Us, Friday, December 6, 2013

Daily Meditations For Advent 2013

” Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

” No matter what you say in life, the truth will always be the truth. You know when someone is telling the truth, you look in the eyes.”

– Jean-Claude Van Damme

” I think it’s more important just to inspire people to wake up one day and pick up a book and start feeling it out for themselves.”

– Maynard James Keenan

” If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

– Albert Einstein

” Prayer is the key of the morning, and the bolt of the evening.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

” Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.”

– Calvin Coolidge

” There was a great difference in persons; and discretion did not always accompany years, nor was youth always without it.”

– Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography Of

Benjamin Franklin

” It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

” Diligently examine thy conscience, and to the best of thy power cleanse and purify it by true contrition and humble confession: so that there be nothing weighty to give thee remorse and hinder thy free access.
Sigh and grieve that thou art yet so carnal and worldly, so unmortified in thy passions, so full of the motions of concupiscence;
So unguarded in thy outward senses, so often entangled with many vain imaginations;
So much inclined to exterior things, so negligent as to the interior;
So easy to laughter and dissipation, so hard to tears and compunction;
So prone to relaxation and to the pleasures of the flesh, so sluggish to austerity and fervor;
So curious to hear news, and to see fine sights, so remiss to embrace things humble and abject;
So covetous to possess much, so sparing in giving, so close in retaining;
So inconsiderate in speech, so little able to hold thy peace;
So disorderly in thy carriage, so over-eager in thy actions;
So greedy at meat, so deaf to the Word of God;
So hasty for rest, so slow to labor;
So wakeful to hear idle tales, so drowsy to watch in the service of God;
So hasty to make an end to thy prayers, so wandering as to attention;
So quickly distracted, so seldom quite recollected within thyself;
So easily moved to anger, so apt to take offence at others;
So prone to judge, so severe in reprehending;
So joyful in prosperity, so weak in adversity;
So often proposing many good things, and effecting little.
Having confessed and bewailed these and other defects with sorrow and a great dislike of thy own weakness, make a strong resolution always to amend thy life and to advance in virtue.”

– Thomas ‘a Kempis, Imitation Of Christ, 1418,

Translated By The Confraternity Of The Precious Blood, 1954

” Nothing in this life can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with
talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

– Calvin Coolidge

” A living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

” A goal is a dream with a deadline.”

– Napoleon Hill

” And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared.”

– Homer

” Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small, I have always thoroughly been in earnest.”

– Charles Dickens

” All growth depends on activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”

– Calvin Coolidge

” Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.”

– Horace

” We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.”

– Calvin Coolidge

” Don’t wait. The time will never be ‘just right’.”

– Napoleon Hill

” We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”

– Calvin Coolidge

” A ‘no’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

” The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.”

– Charles Dickens

” Even if you are a minority of one, the Truth is the Truth.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

” I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams.”

– H.P. Lovecraft

” There are dark shadows on the Earth, but its lights are stronger in contrast.”

– Charles Dickens

” Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”

– Napoleon Hill

” What a man does for pay is of little significance. What he is, as a sensitive instrument responsive to the world’s beauty, is everything!”

– H.P. Lovecraft

” There is nothing so strong or safe…as the simple Truth.”

– Charles Dickens

” There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

” He has plans for you that He carefully put into His blueprint before time even began.”

– The Word Among Us, Daily Meditations For

Advent 2013, December 20, 2013 Meditation

” There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.”

– John Locke

” Toil without song is like a weary journey without an end.”

– H.P. Lovecraft

” I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.”

– Charles Dickens

” How strangely will the tools of a tyrant pervert the plain meaning of words!”

– Samuel Adams

” Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”

– Jim Morrison

” It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.”

– John Locke

” One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”

– Lucille Ball

” The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”

– Anne Frank

” Un-forgiveness, bitterness, resentment, and anger are like the four walls of a prison cell. Forgiveness is the key that opens the door and lets you out.”

– Robert Enright

” Goals are like a recipe. If you follow the steps and add the correct ingredients, the desired result will be achieved.”

– JMD II

” It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.”

– John Locke

” Shut out the whole world, and all the tumult of vices: sit like a sparrow solitary on the housetop.”

– Psalm CI.8

” I grew convinc’d that truth, sincerity, and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; and I form’d written resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to practice them ever while I lived.”

– Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography Of

Benjamin Franklin

” The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; Salvation for its end, and Truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure.”

– John Locke

” I had therefore a tolerable character to begin the world with; I valued it properly, and determined to preserve it.”

– Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography Of

Benjamin Franklin

” An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; a villain, like beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.”

– John Locke

” You need to get out there and live it. The Gospel is your marching orders.”

– Mother Angelica

” He that is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory.”

– Proverbs XXV. 27

” Blessed is that simplicity that leaveth the difficult ways of dispute, and goeth on in the plain and sure path of God’s commandments.”

– Psalm CXVIII. 35

” Will it! ”

– Saint Thomas Aquinas

” St. Jude, giver of hope, let the promise of this new day fill me. St. Jude, place the light of hope in my heart, and keep it lit with the love of God. Bless me in my work today. Help me to forgive readily and to know and do God’s holy and true will. May everything that I am bring glory to God, and lead me closer to Him. Amen.”

– Saint Jude Prayer In The Morning

” I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurr’d to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully express’d the extent I gave to its meaning.
These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:

1. TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE.
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION.
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.
Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY.
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8.JUSTICE.
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION.
Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS.
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILITY.
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY.
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates.